{"id":433972,"date":"2020-06-01T04:24:32","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T11:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=433972"},"modified":"2020-06-01T04:24:32","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T11:24:32","slug":"the-history-of-racial-discrimination-in-contested-waters-as-a-snapshot-of-prevailing-sorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/the-history-of-racial-discrimination-in-contested-waters-as-a-snapshot-of-prevailing-sorrow\/","title":{"rendered":"The History Of Racial Discrimination In Contested Waters As A Snapshot Of Prevailing Sorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"

The death of George Floyd<\/a> and murder charge against one of four police officers caught on camera at the heart of events that have sparked nationwide protests in the United States over racial discrimination and the treatment of minorities by police and society, have prompted African-American swimmers and their teammates to express their feelings<\/a> and contribute to deeper understanding and a brighter future.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the news is evidence of previous complaints against Derek Chauvin<\/a>, the officer due to appear in court today\u00a0and other officers.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The significance of events tearing at the fabric of American society and dominating headlines<\/a> even at a time of COVID-19 and the associated risks of mass gatherings\u00a0to swimmers is not new. With roots in centuries and tales of discrimination that pre-date slavery, pools in the 20th century and narratives of ‘golden eras’ in swimming, were alien places and concepts for many black people around the world.<\/em><\/p>\n

Woeful history is recalled in several books, key among “Contested Waters” by Jeff Wiltse<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0If you haven’t read it, do. In 2007, it earned him the Buck Dawson Author’s Award from the International Swimming Hall of Fame. <\/a>The work and several extracts with related cuttings from history featured in the ISHOF Awards Annual<\/a> and elsewhere.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A native of Seattle, Wiltse is an assistant professor of history at the University of Montana, where he lectures on late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century United States history as well as in social and urban history. His doctorate at Brandeis University in 2002 centres on a dissertation, \u201cContested Waters: A History of Swimming Pools in America\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

In 2003, the work received the 2003 Allan Nevins Prize of the Society of Americans Historians for the \u201cbest-written dissertation\u00a0on a major topic in American history.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

It is a tale of hatred and segregation, the poisonous spirit of which lives with us yet, a story of swimming disparity, drowning disparity, pools apart and racial discrimination.<\/em><\/p>\n

The book charts the history of swimming pools as racially sensitive flashpoint in the U.S. for generations, as noted in the academic research of Wiltse in “Contested Waters” and the stories of African-American people often denied access to pools in the era of segregation. After that was abolition, white people found other ways to exclude them. In 2014, Wiltse penned an instructive paper painful to read: The Black\u2013White Swimming Disparity in America: A Deadly Legacy of Swimming Pool Discrimination.<\/em><\/p>\n

A good day to dip into Jeff Wiltse’s work on racial discrimination<\/h2>\n
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Contested Waters by Jeff Wiltse<\/p><\/div>\n

Jeff Wiltse\u2019s \u201cContested Waters\u201d<\/em><\/strong> is not only a colorful story of America\u2019s municipal swimming pools of the 19th and 20th centuries but spills well beyond the water in terms of its significance to understanding the social history and development of America.<\/p>\n

The book is a crash course in and sweeping panorama of ‘American Life’, what made it shine – and what did not, racism a lasting cancer.<\/p>\n

The ISHOF citation read:<\/p>\n

“It is, at once, a story of class and race conflicts, burgeoning cities and suburbs, competing visions of social reform, eroticized public culture, democratized leisure, and Americans recent retreat from public life. It will be of interest to movie-goers who want to learn more about the issues raised by Pride, a new film that tells the story of Jim Ellis, an African American schoolteacher who founded a swim team in one of Philadelphia\u00cds roughest neighborhoods in the 1970s.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Public pools were where \u201cAmericans came into intimate and prolonged contact with one another. People who might otherwise come in no closer contact than passing on the street, now waited in line together, undressed next to one another and shared the same water,\u201d writes Wiltse as he describes the flashpoint of pools.<\/p>\n

Pools in cities far and wide ranged from the humble bathhouses to majestic clubs with beaches of fine, hauled-in sand, recliners, refreshment, recreation and a place to be and be seen to be. Nakedness being new to a time living within its time a pool was a \u201csexually charged public space,\u201d says Wiltse, that might set off moral panic. Pools were also safe spaces in that the risks and detritus of open water were kept at bay. Baths were a way of getting the great unwashed washed and, officialdom hoped, might serve to reduce the spread of transmittable diseases.<\/p>\n

Wiltse dips deep into the detail of where and in what circumstances blacks were allowed to swim. In the main, they were not allowed – and when they tried, they were shoved out of line, punched, kicked, were pelted with rocks to keep them at bay and had the police set on them. There were even incidents in which black swimmers who were allowed entry to pools found themselves surrounded by white swimmers, then thumped and ducked as drowning experiments lucky to leave the water alive.<\/p>\n

It was a time of brutality and discrimination delivered with the threat of life lost. George Floyd’s passing in the circumstances caught on camera suggest that some have not moved on with the times – and those some are part of the system, tainting the uniform of protection for all.<\/p>\n

Many pools were built for blacks only and some for lower-class whites. There was civic benevolence in the mix but in the main it was about keeping people apart. Pools for blacks tended to be a tank surrounded by concrete and a wire fence, no sandy stretches and recliners for them.<\/p>\n

Some pools were seen as “disease breeders”, their planning and building met with resistance from the ruling classes. Around 1910, two years after the foundation of FINA and in the era of Charles Daniels, a pool was proposed for Central Park in New York. The New York Times quoted the Mayor and his fear that \u201cif it is used by all classes it will become foul\u201d.<\/p>\n

Wiltse explained: \u201cMiddle-class Americans at the time perceived immigrants, laborers and blacks as equally dirty and prone to carry communicable diseases. As a result, they avoided swimming in the same pool with the working classes no matter their race or ethnicity.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2014, in his paper “The Black\u2013White Swimming Disparity in America: A Deadly Legacy of Swimming Pool Discrimination”,<\/em> Wiltse poses two questions, gives a comprehensive answer to the first and a rounded answer to the second an asserts:<\/p>\n

“This past discrimination casts a long shadow. As a result of limited access to swimming facilities and swim lessons and the unappealing design of most pools earmarked for Blacks, swimming did not become integral to the recreation and sports culture within African American communities. Some Black Americans learned to swim but relatively few.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Racial Discrimination Questions In Those Contested Waters:<\/h2>\n